Islamabad, Aug 17 (IANS) Kashmir and not terrorism is the main obstacle to good subcontinental ties and the issue cannot be resolved till such time India insists the state is its inalienable part, an editorial in a Pakistani newspaper said Tuesday.
‘And there is no possibility of a negotiated settlement if India continues to make the assertion,’ said the editorial in Nawa-i-Waqt titled ‘Lalaji! Agar Kashmir Atoot Ang Hai to Mazakirat Kis Baat Par (Lalaji! If Kashmir is an inalienable part, then talks on what?)’
Referring to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address on India’s Independence Day Sunday, it sought to counter his statement that Pakistan’s failure to act against anti-Indian activity taking place on its territory was preventing New Delhi from taking the dialogue process forward.
‘Kashmir is the main issue between India and Pakistan and without the resolution of the dispute, there can never be friendly ties between the two countries. This issue cannot be held hostage to the regional and international situation when the problem owes its genesis to India’s actions,’ it said.
The editorial contended that the problem dated back to 1947 when according to the agenda of India’s Partition, Kashmir with its Muslim majority population and strategic importance should have become part of Pakistan.
‘If this had been done and the Pakistani government had pursued these aims, then most of the following wars, the shedding of much innocent blood and the poverty many people face in both countries… all due to the problem of Kashmir, would have never come to pass.’
‘However, India, which has never come to terms with the fact of Pakistan’s existence, has usurped the Kashmir Valley. Though India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru took the issue to the United Nations but when both the General Assembly and Security Council asked India to hold a plebiscite in the region to ascertain the people’s wishes, it never did. Instead it deployed a 700,000 force in the area…. a position which continues till today,’ the editorial said.
It said that India had not only ignored UN resolutions but brought Kashmir under the ambit of its constitution without ascertaining the views of the people of Kashmir, gave the status of a state and ‘installed a puppet government which the people of Kashmir have never acknowledged till the present time’.
‘Despite all the oppression, the people of Kashmir have been struggling for their independence. Though sustaining a toll of 150,000 in the endeavour, they have never wavered in their commitment and today their struggle is on the verge of attaining its goal.’
The editorial said that this goal could never be achieved if Pakistan or the Kashmir people ‘sat in on the negotiating table with the perfidious Indians, whose whole intention is to maintain their hold over Kashmir by any means possible’.
‘There have been more than 150 instances of discussions between India and Pakistan at various levels but the Indians have sabotaged all and their only intention is to put pressure on Pakistan to concede that the Kashmiri struggle is terrorism,’ the editorial said, adding that against this backdrop, there was no chance of any dialogue achieving any result and Pakistan should ‘abandon this futile pursuit’.
